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Telecom growth does not seem to have been touched in any significant manner by the current liquidity crisis and business slowdown. The overall mood seems to be very upbeat, but things could change dramatically in the next few months. Specially on the enterprise business front. We are already seeing that enterprises have started trimming various costs because of cash crunch or reduced business. Software exporters and BPOs, for instance, who were big contributors to most telecom operator's kitty, have seen a sudden slowdown.

As the pressure on enterprise customer goes up, there will be pressure on the sales head to cut travel costs of its sales force, there will be pressure on the HR head to trim training costs, and there will be pressure on the admin head to chop communication costs. The enterprise customers will have to be innovative now, and will want partners who can help them be innovative. Operators who provide run of the mill, standard off the shelf solutions will fall out of favor. And most probably costly solutions will have no takers.

One strategy that should work for the operators is the value add route. They should look at every possible opportunity to offer solutions to customers rather than just bandwidth or plain pipes. I got a call from a unknown company saying that they have a software by which corporate training costs go down by almost 70%. Its online, can be done during after office, and does not require people to travel. He said that since at this time of economic crisis, training and retraining of employees is critical, he has got orders (some are pilots, though) from some very well known companies. Ideally this one should be riding an operator to offer this service. And it could be a win-win deal for everybody. The operators have traditionally been not very open to the idea of having too many “third party” partners, but I think the time for that is coming.

This company is also working on a quick to install, low cost VoIP-based telecom solutions for SMBs that spend significant money on phone bills. His claim was that this solution will bring bills down by over 50%, and it will all be legal. I am sure, even these players, otherwise termed as shady, could be at least explored, and depending upon their legality, they could even be partnered with. You partner with competition these days.

The name of the game, therefore, in the coming days will be “innovate and partner”. Having said so much, I also strongly believe that the turnaround in India will be much faster. But that should not become a reason for not taking up or abandoning this strategy. This strategy will also help the operators to actually re-organize and re-structure themselves to be more productive and cost-efficient. And do a much better job when the going is good.

<ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in>